Неверная жена: Чёрная комедия Престона Старджа

1948 film by Preston Sturges

Unfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball black comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallée and Barbara Lawrence. The film is about a jealous symphony conductor who imagines three different ways to deal with the supposed infidelity of his beautiful wife—murder, forbearance, and a suicidal game of Russian roulette—during a concert of three inspiring pieces of classical music. At home, his attempts to bring any of his fantasies to life swiftly devolve into farce, underscored with humorous adaptations of the relevant music. Although the film, which was the first of two Sturges made for Twentieth Century Fox, received mostly positive reviews, it was not successful at the box office.

Each of Alfred's three fantasy revenge scenarios is accompanied by music appropriate for the mood of the particular scene, which is underscored throughout. Rex Harrison is shown rehearsing and directing real musicians from known orchestras. Overture to the opera Semiramide by Gioacchino Rossini, about a femme fatale as Alfred envisages his wife to be. Overture to the opera Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg by Richard Wagner, about renunciation of carnal love for a higher and more spiritual goal, as Alfred sees himself in that situation. The tone poem Francesca da Rimini by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, referring to the infernal destiny awaiting an adulterous wife, such as Dante's character.

Preston Sturges wrote the original screen story for Unfaithfully Yours in 1932 – the idea came to him when a melancholy song on the radio influenced him while working on writing a comic scene. Sturges shopped the script to Fox, Universal and Paramount who all rejected it during the 1930s. In 1938, Sturges envisioned Ronald Colman playing de Carter, and later initially wanted Frances Ramsden – who was introduced in Sturges' 1947 film The Sin of Harold Diddlebock – to play Daphne; but by the time casting for the film began, he wanted James Mason for the conductor and Gene Tierney for his wife. Unfaithfully Yours, which had the working titles of "Unfinished Symphony" and "The Symphony Story", went into production on February 18, 1948, and wrapped in mid April of that year. By 28 June the film had already been sneak previewed, with a runtime of 127 minutes, but the film's release was delayed to avoid any backlash from the suicide of actress Carole Landis in July. It was rumored that Landis and Rex Harrison had been having an affair, and that she committed suicide when Harrison refused to get a divorce and marry her. Harrison discovered Landis' body in her home. The film was a box office failure. Some film historians have suggested that the scandal surrounding the suicide of Harrison's lover Carole Landis may have been a factor in the disappointing ticket sales. The film remains well regarded by critics, and holds a 94% on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews. In a retrospective review for The New Yorker, Pauline Kael called it "One of the most sophisticated slapstick comedies ever made", noting its outstanding and influential comic lines and scenarios. In 2022, director Quentin Tarantino placed the film at number 8 in his top 11 movies of all time.

The Criterion Company released a DVD of the film, featuring additional audio commentary by Sturges scholars James Harvey, Diane Jacobs, and Brian Henderson. Sturges's fourth (and last) wife "Sandy" also provides commentary about Sturges and the film.

Twentieth Century Fox remade the film in 1984 under the same title, with Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski, Armand Assante and Albert Brooks and directed by Howard Zieff. The remake, however, eliminated the theme of three different pieces of music inspiring three different response or revenge scenarios.